"There are entire gyms (where) guys try to knock each other out," says Denis, 30. "It comes back to that mentality of, like, you're a warrior and you've got to go hard. There's only one speed, right? It's no pain, no gain. It's so archaic."

[...]

DeBlass spars with Neiman Gracie, a burly young fighter. The session quickly turns into a brawl. DeBlass and Gracie throw heavy punches and kicks, faster and faster, harder and harder.

Under pressure, DeBlass launches a front kick that drills Gracie in the mouth, opening a 2-inch gash under his bottom lip. Blood splatters Gracie's T-shirt, DeBlass' arm and the blue mats.

Problem.

That type of punishment can add up, says Pat Miletich, one of MMA's pioneers as a fighter and then as a trainer and coach. Miletich, 47, started training in MMA in 1992 and says he has seen cognitive changes in some peers.

"A decent number of them are not quite as sharp as they were when they started," Miletich says. "You can tell that there's been some effects from the blows to the head, the pugilistic dementia and things like that. Some guys have suffered. So it's there. It's definitely there.

"They're just not quite the same guy. Their eyes are not as sharp. Their pupils are different. Now and then they have a blank stare. Things like that where that just wasn't there a decade ago."

Another big change over time, Miletich says, is the approach to training. His fighters spar "once, max twice a week," and they are "always fully padded up" to protect themselves from unnecessary harm. Miletich also harps on teaching his fighters to protect themselves, which he says isn't happening in some other gyms.

Solution.

MMA fighters shouldn't get anywhere near as much cumulative brain damage as boxers if they drop the TMA approach and protect themselves properly during training. All other things equal the punches simply don't add up.

only problem i have is weight cutting, if they all had to come in under the next weight class ups limit like nc it would be ok. For instance at 155 you can't come in over 170. So most lw's in the cage are about 165-170. It also is more fair

Im reading about the hard sparring in the gyms aswell, it sounds weird that sometimes they spar HARD even 4 times a week, shouldn't they limit that a bit? Cant be too healthy. Im bit worried for this guy too, reading about how he stutters in work after training etc. One of the things that shocked me a bit, was Sanchez vs Meledez lately, the way he spoke after the fight, he was a mess, couldn't understand a thing. And I recommend everyone to watch here boxing documentary videos "legendary nights" series. Take a look at Taylor vs Chavez episode. Well, thats boxing, not MMA, but still interesting and sad as hell, shocking too.

This caught me too "He gets beat up more in training than he does in any of his fights," said his employer.

Okay. Now I am at this point here.

"I go out and try to hurt people. ... I used to go in to try and win. I don't want to win anymore. I want to beat the shit out of people."

Depending on my conditioning my cut. Would last between 7-14 days and i would lose between 5-15 pounds, i would dehydrate, substantially cut back my calories and continue to sweat every day. I wasn't even the worst, some of the guys used diuretic and laxatives and dehydrated to the point of delusion. Keep in mind this was all during high school. I'm sure much more drastic steps are taken when a paycheck is on the line. Thanks for the article i thought it was an informative read, i think this type of exposure, in the long run/grand scheme of things is a good thing.

only problem i have is weight cutting, if they all had to come in under the next weight class ups limit like nc it would be ok. For instance at 155 you can't come in over 170. So most lw's in the cage are about 165-170. It also is more fair

Agreed, I've actually advocated this idea for awhile. For LHW, the limit could be like 225, and for HW it could be around 290.